Happy Holidays! The hours upon hours of planning, organizing, operating, competing and fellowship that was the 2018 Season for Cincinnati SCCA has come to a close with an exciting outlook for 2019! At our last General Meeting in November there were a few exciting developments to report.

Next up, Annual Awards Banquet! As previously mentioned our normal meeting place of Mill Race will be unavailable for Jan-Feb 2019 due to major HVAC work being done in the building. I am excited to announce our ANNUAL AWARDS BANQUET will be the evening of Saturday February 2nd, 2019 at Receptions-FAIRFIELD (located at 5975 Boymel Dr, Fairfield, OH 45014). Details on registration will be coming soon!

And finally, NEW SCHEDULE FOR 2019 MEETINGS!! After much discussion regarding our passed General Meetings and how to improve member participation, the board decided on some changes for 2019 including:
– ALL monthly General Meetings will continue on the 3rd Tuesday of the month but will start at 7pm
– The General Meeting will follow the agenda of the normal Board Meeting but will also include a time for “Open Discussion” where any Cincinati SCCA member can ask questions of the board or event chairs.
– LOCATION of MEETINGS. Due to the rising cost of rental and availability of the Mill Race Banquet Center, we will be reducing the quantity of monthly meetings at Mill Race and will have alternate locations during the “off months” from Mill Race. Below is our tentative 2019 General Meeting Schedule (all TBA locations will be confirmed and posted on our website cincyscca.com, our Facebook page and email blasts):
January 15th 2019 – TBA
February 19th 2019 – TBA
March 19th 2019 – Mill Race Banquet Center
April 16th 2019 – TBA
May 21st 2019 – Mill Race Banquet Center
June 18th 2019 – TBA
July 16th 2019 – Mill Race Banquet Center
August 20th 2019 – Mill Race Banquet Center
September 17th 2019 – TBA
October 15th 2019 – Mill Race Banquet Center
November 19th 2019 – Mill Race Banquet Center
December – No Meeting

Thank you to everyone that participated, volunteered and organized our events in 2018!
Have a safe holiday season and look forward to seeing everyone in 2019!

2018 has been another great year for the region and we are winding down to the end of our activities for 2018….

This is a reminder that our last meeting for 2018 is our General Meeting @ 8PM this Tuesday on November 20th at the Mill Race Banquet Center. At this meeting we will be electing our 2019 Board. The following members were nominated at our last meeting in October for this coming year and are all running unopposed:

Also at our meeting we will discuss our plans for 2019 and meetings. The Mill Race Banquet Center will be unavailable for use in January and February 2019 due to renovations being done to the building. So with that we do know 2 things, our regular meeting schedule/locations will be updated and also our Annual Awards Banquet will need to be relocated. Please save the tentative date of February 2, 2019 for our Annual Awards Banquet. Confirmation of the LOCATION, date and more details are to come!

Once again our next General Meeting is coming up this Tuesday November 20th, look forward to seeing you there!

We had our last two points events Oct 7 and Oct 28 at Traders World which capped a great season for all. In all we had 1266 entrants participate in our Test & Tune, Starting Line, Evolution Driving School, Great Lakes Divisional, Joint MVSCC, and 8 Points events averaging 128 per points event up from 124 in 2017. Enough for the math, it was a very good season with a wide variety of events which were fun and well attended by novices and long term members and incorporated several improvements such as new timers, FM broadcast on site, live timing, improved novice program including split novice classes, new trophies, CincySCCA Solo – Autocross FaceBook page, – etc. Class points will be posted soon (if not already) and trophies will be presented at the banquet (Tentative Date: Feb. 02 @ Mill Race Banquet Center) – come out, enjoy the meal, bench racing with friends, and cheering on those who got trophies.

PE #7 – Oct 7 We had a Danny Popp designed course which received rave reviews and included his trademark “Cincinnati Boxes”, an element with essentially two Chicago Boxes arranged in line with alternating openings. We had 135 entrants come out and play with really tight competition in SS (Dean Rindler over codriver Joel Zeller by 0.112), SSM (Russ Charlton over Ashley Irvin by 0.110 secs), FS (Clay Slusher edging Ryan Staup by 0.110 secs), Novice Street (Austin Engen over Lawrence Fasse on his last run by 0.091), CAM T (Nathan Johnson edging Dan Ballard by 0.082), and Street Tire (James Vital setting the mark on his second run winning by 0.043 secs over Eric Wuest). Danny Popp took first place in raw time by 0.706 over Dean Rindler and 0.047 on PAX where there were 11 within 0.787 secs of the lead.

Photo Courtesy of Jeff Loewe PhotographyPhoto Courtesy of Mike Riegel

PE #8 – Oct 28 We still had 103 entrants come out and brave the miserable, cold (mid-40s) and rainy/wet weather on our last event. Can’t really complain, the weather held out on most of our events this year even with similarly yucky weather forecasts at times. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Traders World, it is a sealed asphalt lot which means it is slick to start with (compared to concrete), but then when you add rain it gets worse but reasonable, but when you add in temps in the 40s it was nearly ridiculous – might as well been on ice or snow unless you had an AWD car… I can personally vouch for used up, low tread, heat cycled rears not doing much on the Corvette… There were lots of spins and slides by the entrants, but the Tim Sholar designed course featuring a three gate flowing element was still a lot of fun and safe – just wish it would have been dry!!! Tightest competition was in the 17 entrant Street Open class where Terry Prand edged Jack Burns by 0.150 secs. With the wet/drying, and rainy conditions times varied all over the place (41.231 to 61.459), resulting in six entrants within 0.928 secs of the top PAX winner (Terry Prand over Jack Burns by 0.150 secs) and Terry Prand over Aaron Gastrich by 0.286 secs on raw time.

Photo Courtesy of Mike RiegelPhoto Courtesy of Mike Riegel

Also, we’d like to thank Mike Riegel for coming out and taking great pictures of our competitors this season. If you have attended our Solo Events and have not seen his photos, please visit our Facebook Group Page “CincySCCA Solo -Autocross” and check out all the photos he has shared with us!

I wasn’t able to give much of a report on the National Championships in the last report, but hopefully you were watching the facebook page for lots of it. Unfortunately whereas I was one of the nearly 1400 entrants registered for the event, I wasn’t able to be there. That said, the one word describing the event would be rain, or perhaps it should be deluge. I heard they had record rainfall amounts of around 6″ of rain a day although not all four days were as wet reportedly. Lots of pictures were posted where you could barely see the car as it splashed through the standing water and deep puddles. Have to believe many pylons got displaced by the water as the car drove by it. Continental all-season tires became the tire of choice over BFG Rivals, Bridgestone RE-71Rs, Hoosiers, etc… Here is how our Cincy members or members from our area did, if I missed someone please let me know…

Still lots of things to work out on the event schedule next year, but we are intending to have an early season Test and Tune, the standard 8 points events, an Evolution School, a Starting Line event, and other dual events with other regions and clubs. Stay tuned starting next year…

This will be a new experience for us in GTA rallies, where scoring is primarily based on your ability to navigate the route twice at a consistent time. Questions related to the theme of the event will provide additional scoring opportunities. There are no prescribed speeds you must adhere to. You can set your own pace – you just need to be consistent from one run to the next. You will not know where the timing points are located.

This is the last rally event of 2018 – don’t miss it! Visit CincySCCA.MotorsportReg.com for links to the registration sites for all the Cincinnati Region events.

The October event had 7 teams participating. There was a tie for first place that was decided by a high card draw. First-timers, Jason & Heather Taunton drove up from Nashville, Tennessee, and took first place honors. Lee Grimes & Loretta Workman were second. Both teams had perfect scores. Jim Knepper & Joy Bond were a very close third. EB Lunken & David Vornholt, frequent participants, as well as 3 teams of newcomers rounded out the field. Thanks to Gordon & Teresa Benson who set the event up and dealt very efficiently with the last-minute road closures in Aurora.

If you need to be paired up with a running partner, let us know and we’ll do our best. Our rallies always end at a location disclosed before you start your drive and is always a family friendly place with food and adult beverages available.

For those new to the sport, Road Rallies are run on public roads at legal (sometimes brisk) speeds on a variety of roads. Route instructions can be challenging but if you are careful you will NOT get lost. Any street licensed vehicle capable of accommodating a driver and a navigator who can communicate safely (so probably not a motorcycle) from a smart car to a pickup truck are eligible and kids are welcome. Penalty points are given for incorrect answers to questions that can be answered by making observations along the route. Low score wins. Awards are presented for each event and points are assigned based on finishing position to determine a series champion.

We are always happy to hear any ideas you have for a fun drive. Contact me to volunteer or if you have questions.

Race Committee meetings will continue throughout the year on the Second Tuesday of each month. The next one is November 13th, 7 PM, at Rick’s Tavern. 5955 Boymel Drive, Fairfield, OH 45014. Please come, have dinner if you want and hash out some ideas for next year.

We had a successful event in 2018 and hope to make it even better in 2019. It takes many hands to make light work of a large event. Please help out.

This will be a new experience for us in GTA rallies, where scoring is primarily based on your ability to navigate the route twice at a consistent time. Questions related to the theme of the event will provide additional scoring opportunities. There are no prescribed speeds you must adhere to. You can set your own pace – you just need to be consistent from one run to the next. You will not know where the timing points are located.

This is the last rally event of 2018 – don’t miss it! Visit CincySCCA.MotorsportReg.com for links to the registration sites for all the Cincinnati Region events.

To be qualified for the End of the year Championship Trophy, you need to have minimum of 4 events, but best 5 events count toward your points.
In some of the classes, the trophy spot may be up to this last event!

Next General Meeting & Board Nomination Meeting coming up on Tuesday October 16th!!

Hello Cincinnati Region SCCA members! It’s been a very long and winding road this season with all of the events your Cincinnati Region has hosted in 2018 and a few more still left to run! But more on that later….

I wanted to take a short moment to remind everyone of our upcoming General Meeting 8PM this Tuesday on October 16th at the Mill Race Banquet Center. This is our annual Nomination Meeting to form the ballot for our 2019 Board Elections on Tuesday November 20th. Each November we vote for one year terms for the Region Executive, Assistant R.E., Treasurer and Secretary. Then we also vote in 3 members as Board-Members-At-Large for a 2 year term. To be on the ballot you must be nominated at the October General Meeting and a current Cincinnati Region SCCA member in good standing. If you are interested in more information for any of the positions, please contact our region nominating committee; either EB Lunken or Jim Clark by clicking here.

At our events this year you may have heard about the initiative Cincinnati Region is sponsoring to have an approved SCCA License Plate available in the state of Ohio. We are gathering over 150 signatures to support the petition for the opportunity to purchase a license plate with the official SCCA Logo on the plate. In order to sign the petition you must have an Ohio Drivers License and then state an Ohio license plate number that your are listed on. The petition does not require you to buy the plate once it becomes available so there is no obligation to buy it, just basically endorsing its existence. Once approved the plate needs to be purchased by a minimum 50 times across the state to be renewed each year. The petition will be at the next events coming up!!

Speaking of our next competition events… the next RallyCross should is on Saturday 10/27, the last Solo points event is 10/28 and our last RoadRally for 2019 will be Saturday 11/3. Make sure to check our website and Facebook for event updates!

And finally, please save the tentative date of Februarye 2, 2019 for our Annual Awards Banquet at the Mill Race Center. Confirmation of the date and more details are to come!

Once again our Nominating Meeting is coming up this Tuesday October 16th, look forward to seeing you there!

This will be a traditional GTA rally with questions to keep you observant and provide scoring opportunities. I know from experience this is a great drive. On-site registration and check in will start at 9:30, but come early for breakfast. We begin the rally at Bob Evans Restaurant – 102 Links Way, Aurora, IN 47001. Safety meeting is at 10:15 and the first car out will be at 10:30. Visit cincyscca.motorsportreg.com for links to the registration sites for all the Cincinnati Region events.
If you need to be paired up with a running partner, let us know and we’ll do our best. Our rallies always end at a location disclosed before you start your drive and is always a family friendly place with food and adult beverages available.

The final rally of the season will be November 3. This will be our first attempt to introduce a time factor. No, you don’t have to follow a prescribed speed over a given distance or perform any complex calculations, you will, however, need to drive a route, or parts of the route, multiple times as consistently as possible. More to follow on this.

For those new to the sport, Road Rallies are run on public roads at legal (sometimes brisk) speeds on a variety of roads. Route instructions can be challenging but if you are careful you will NOT get lost. Any street licensed vehicle capable of accommodating a driver and a navigator who can communicate safely (so probably not a motorcycle) from a smart car to a pickup truck are eligible and kids are welcome. Penalty points are given for incorrect answers to questions that can be answered by making observations along the route. Low score wins. Awards are presented for each event and points are assigned based on finishing position to determine a series champion.
We are always happy to hear any ideas you have for a fun drive. Contact me to volunteer or if you have questions.

September was a very busy month for Cincy SCCA and our Solo members. We had great representation at the ProSolo finale Sep 1 & 2, the National Autocross Championships Sep 4 – 7, and LSFest in Bowling Green Sep 7-9. After all these marquee events, we also held our two Great Lakes Divisional Solo Series events on Sep 15 & 16. Unfortunately I do not have access to the results for any of these events, but our Cincy soloists represented us well in Nebraska with record number of entrants (>1400) under shall we say less than ideal conditions… okay, a deluge with easily 2-3″ of standing water throughout. Only one I remember off the top of my head is congrats to Shari McCoy who led CSL after day one but was bumped to second in the end – a fantastic first Nationals!!! Sorry for all those who I have forgotten, I will make it up to everyone next month once I can collect all the stats.

Our first Great Lakes Divisional events in many years were held at Traders World on Sep 15 & 16. We had 72 entrants on Sep 15 and 140 on Sep 16 with people coming in from all over the division. I really need to thank Myke Dziengel for chairing these events for me and my solo committee for making these two events go so well since I wasn’t able to be there at all Saturday and only minimally on Sunday. I got nothing but compliments from the competitors, many of whom travel to many other regions and national level events, about how well our events are run, how much fun/challenging the courses were, how large our novice program is, how friendly/helpful our members are, and how impressed they are with all our extras such as live timing, FM radio, unique trophies, etc. Many, many kudos to the team and entrants!!!

Photo Courtesy of Mike RiegelPhoto Courtesy of Mike Riegel

As to the remainder of the season, we are quickly approaching the end unfortunately as it has been a great year so far! We have our final two points events, PE#7 on Oct 7 and PE#8 on Oct 28. Year end points are awarded based on the competitor’s top five (5) events with a minimum of four (4) to qualify. Trophies are awarded based on number of competitors qualified by year end in each class using the standard formula of a trophy awarded for each 1, 4, 7, 10, 14, incremented by 4, etc qualifiers like we do at the events. (You can check your current standing on our Schedule and Results Page)

We also made changes to the huge Novice class by splitting it into two classes, one for street category cars (basically stock), and non-street class cars. Novice event points for this season are still going to be combined for year end, but this will give us the opportunity to provide better focus on the novices both during their run hears as well as their work heats. If this works as well as we believe it will, we will likely have two novice classes next year and the majority of the novices this year can help next season’s novices.